Student visits are important part of mission

Young visitors at the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society check out a glass exhibit that includes a range of items from functional tableware to Durand art glass produced by the Vineland Flint Glass Works between 1924 and 1931.
(Photo:
Submitted photo
)

Editor’s note: This is the latest column in an occasional series by the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society.

We currently are preparing for our first annual school tours at the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society. The students, who usually range from third grade to high school, sometimes arrive looking a little bored and uninterested, but they rarely leave that way.

Although the museum unfortunately was not designed to handle large crowds, we’ve worked out a system that ensures the students will see just about everything we have to offer. And as we watch their eyes widen with delight at the clothing, the artwork, the Civil War weaponry and more, it confirms for us that this is the main reason why we look after the museum collections. Not every young person is going to develop an ongoing love of history after a visit, but we think they gain a new appreciation for and a deeper understanding of their community, which is equally important.

Since our education program is run by two retired teachers, we make sure that our programs conform to New Jersey’s Core Curriculum Standards. That means, if the third-grade students are studying about life in Vineland, we focus their program in that direction. For older students who are studying New Jersey history or civics, we emphasize those areas so that they can relate what they learn at the museum to what they are studying in class.

Sometimes, the students challenge us to look at history in a new way, which is wonderful, as far as we’re concerned. Last year, they raised questions such as “Did Native Americans fight in the Civil War?” and (regarding women’s floor-length dresses), “What exactly did they wear under there?” Such questions show us that the students are paying attention during the tours and are genuinely curious to know more about what we discussed. However, learning new information about Vineland’s past is not something that we share just with the students. As you can imagine, there is a lot to share.

We’re currently planning a reorganization of the museum’s exhibits that will allow us to showcase some newly donated objects and records, as well as some that have been in storage for a long time. Some of the more unusual items that have surfaced in the collections include an illustrated broadside that was published in The New York Times in 1874. It is a very negative caricature of the women who attended the “Anti-Fashion Convention” that was staged in Vineland that year to encourage women to give up their long dresses in favor of wearing trousers. While local residents were apparently not disturbed by the idea, newspapers across the country published similar pieces about the controversial issue. We had the broadside enlarged into a poster and plan to display it with the women’s suffrage material to help visitors better understand what American life was like in the 19th century.

We also plan to create an exhibit that includes the pair of handmade leather shoes that were featured in this column a couple months ago. Since then, we acquired a Keighley Company catalog that shows they not only produced a record number of shoes for department stores up and down the East Coast, they also manufactured the machinery for other shoe companies. Keighley once held the world record for the fastest production of a pair of shoes (in just a little over 16 minutes), so the catalog will make a fine addition to our local business exhibit.

In addition, one of the things we realized recently was that while we talk a lot about the immigrant experience on our tours, we don’t actually have much out that reflects the lives of the people who came after the first group of settlers. So, we’re going to start by creating space for the lives of the African-Americans and German immigrants, who were here before Charles K. Landis even founded Vineland, then add exhibits on the early Italian and Jewish settlers. Once those are in place, we plan to add exhibits on the different ethnic groups who followed.

We feel that it’s important to reflect Vineland’s cultural diversity at our museum because that’s essentially what the town has always been about. If you have any family records or photographs (whether originals or copies) that you would like to share, or have the histories of a local church or civic group, please contact us at (856) 691-1111 or at vinelandhistory@ gmail.com. Let’s keep Vineland’s story unfolding at the Society for the next generation.

We need your support

I know, I know, you’re probably sick and tired of hearing those words these days. It seems like every nonprofit in the country is chasing down the already overburdened taxpayer for a donation. Well, we’re reaching out to the public for a very specific reason — now that the city of Vineland has generously provided us with a grant to add a ramp to the front of the museum, we’re planning to get to work on the inside of the building. The original tin ceiling that graces the second-floor exhibit galleries is badly in need of repair. Leaks from the exterior have furrowed into the ceiling tiles, causing rust and damage that could become permanent if it’s not addressed soon.

Unfortunately, our existing budget has no room for such renovations. But it’s interesting to us that when the existing museum was constructed in 1910, funds were raised from the community “by subscription.” Whether you gave $1 or $50 (both substantial sums in those days), your donation helped create the building that has been the Society’s headquarters for more than 100 years. So, guess what? Whether you can give $1, $50 or even more now, we’ll be grateful for the support. Your contribution will be recorded and preserved and become part of the permanent records in our collections. We’ve already received help from some long-time supporters but we are still a long way from our goal.

Patricia A. Martinelli is curator of the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society. She can be reached at (856) 691-1111 or VinelandHistory@gmail.com.